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While I was in Navajo Nation, I got a chance to listen to a young man talk about his pottery. I won’t even begin to do this story justice, but basically he lives in an area that was once inhabited by the Anasazi people, and he can walk around his house and around the rock formations and find old pieces of broken pottery, formed and painted so long ago. And it inspired him to start making his own, based partially on what he finds and partially on a modern twist to their forms and designs.

I thought that was one of the coolest things I had ever heard! He had some pieces he showed us, and told us about how he makes and fires the pottery, and how he creates the dyes, and all of it how it was done for centuries.

His story then inspired me to do something like that! I can walk around my house and pick up stones, and then just like *my* ancestors did, I started making stone carvings! Ok, so I cheat a bit and use a dremel instead of arduous hand carving with manual tools, but still, I’m loving this so much!

My sister got the first one. She asked if I could do a scrolly design in green. I said yes to the scrolly, but said there was no way I could color it that it would last, I only have water-based paints and they’d wash off too easily. But I got a nice pendant-shaped stone and started carving away.

Then… as I sat at my computer desk… out of the corner of my eye… what should I see?? But green nail polish! Yes! That’s it, enamel, that won’t wash off at all! And if it’s tucked into the groove of the carving, it won’t chip off, either! So my sister got her green scrolly design in the end! 🙂

stone pendants

That, along with the other two, were the first ones I tried. I was using a diamond tipped bit, so it would drill through the stone, and had to keep the stone constantly wet to prevent stone dust from getting into the motor and to keep the stone and bit cool. (also, wear a dust mask! The stuff in rock can be super-duper awful to get in your lungs! As awful as that dust mask smells, it’s preferable to the alternative!)

Well, after having such success with that, I decided to try others, drilling lots of little stones into tiny bead-kinda things, I don’t have pictures of those yet – coming soon. But then I was telling a gal at work about it and ended up making three more just tonight when I got home, two for ladies at work and one for me. One of the gals collects heart-shaped stones, so I carved a heart onto hers so she could have a “heart stone” with her always!

Heart-stone pendant

The other gal gets this fabulous red stone pendant:

Red stone with crystal beads

And I carved my Norse SCA name into this and then added gold nail polish to the letters to make them sparkle (you can’t see it very well in this picture but it’s there. Trust me.)

“Sigga” stone pendant

So this is my new hobby to add to the growing collection. Stone carving. Soon I’ll work my way up to larger stones and larger images (beyond pendants) like the Norse did all over the bloody place.

I also painted a cavern scene. I can’t really blame this on anything except maybe an abundance of rocks on the brain 😉

Washed smooth by nature’s caress, the jagged edge is eased. Beside lapis waves which kissed the ocher shores we plucked our wind-worn memories from the sand to leave in our wake a mark of passing. A tenuous journey across time where two paths cross – the wanderer and the placer. It takes a steady hand to find the balance; unsettle even one, they fall. The strength of the offering is in the leaving, an act of faith in defiance of gravity. Poems precarious, they stand as testaments to the impermanence of creation.

silent words of stone
whisper to the next who pass
you are not the first
follow in my footsteps and
for a moment we are one

For today’s prompt, we’re going to write ekphrastic poetry–or poetry based off another piece of art. In the past, I’ve provided paintings, but today, I’m picking photographs (for something a little different). You may use one of the images below or choose your own

Or in this case, the photo above. Now I’ll admit, when I saw the *thumbnail* of the above, I thought it was a surreal picture of giraffe up to their necks in water. It wasn’t until I saw the large version that I realized they were clouds. Still, I liked the image it brought to mind, so I stuck with it. Eye of the beholder and all that. 🙂

Do check out some of the other pictures in the link above, they’re really quite pretty.

It consists of 50 lines. The first two begin with the same word, the second with the last word of the second line,..until we get to line 48, when you take the last two words of lines 47 and 48 to conclude the poem…I goofed on mine, the last two words should come first from line 48 then end with line 47. There should be no punctuation…and when read aloud pauses should only be made for breath.

The phrases should be brief but at least two words should be used. The title must be just 3 words this is what Shadow Poetry tells us about the title:

The title must be only three words, with some sort of preposition or conjunction joining the first word from the third line to the first word from the 47th line, in that order.

Oh…by way…use the acronym wdbwp as the first word of the first two lines of your poem.

Enticing to Play

wdbwp proposing
wdbwp enticing
enticing dancing with my muse
enticing kindling inner desire
desire for the creation
desire to then create
create a connection
create a reflection
reflection of meaning
reflection of soul
soul caught in a picture
soul of the moment
moment caught my eye
moment sliding
sliding between us
sliding beyond
beyond the rivers
beyond the hills
hills of purple and emerald
hills of sacred stones
stones set and aligned
stones of stars ringed on earth
earth, fire, and water
earth, air, and dreams
dreams of distant landscapes
dreams of sidereal times
times yet approaching
times racing away
away through my fingers
away through my mind
mind wandering in ethers
mind altering thoughts
thoughts jumbled together
thoughts strung out on a line
line up one by one
line carved in the sand
sand flowing seas
sand flowing through glass
glass though unbroken
glass under my feet
feet travel without aim
feet weary with every fall
fall colors crimson gold
fall into a pile of leaves
leaves like dried words
leaves me a child playing
playing with nature
playing with sounds
sounds of
nature

Now a picture dump of what I’ve been painting lately 🙂 I’m not happy with all of them, but they’re all helping me grow, and definitely helping me understand how the medium works. Enjoy!

Writing is not like a bicycle. You do forget how. You think “I totally know how to do this” and you get on and crash miserably and then kick it and go sit in the corner with a scotch. Then you forget to pick it up for a while and it gets very rusty. It takes time to oil the chains and make sure it isn’t going to fall apart on you the second you push it out of the garage. Or that the seat isn’t going to fall out from underneath you. Or the tires aren’t flat.

Okay, so writing is a little bit like a bicycle. Maybe you don’t forget how, but you forget how to do it *well* and you get very rusty, and the rustier you get the harder it is to get going again. Or keep going, sometimes. Sometimes writing will rust right out from underneath you or the seat will twist or the tire will go flat and you’re all ‘WTH writing, we were doing so well, what happened?’ and all the writing can do is shrug and go sit in the corner with a scotch.

Until a prompt comes along that reminds writing why it likes you, and it’ll come over and tap your shoulder and whisper in your ear and say, “Hey… that prompt looks easy. No steep slopes or weird turns. And the weather is nice today. Maybe we should take that prompt out for a ride and see where it goes.” And you think to yourself, “It does look nice… and I haven’t written in a while.”

So you try it, and at first you aren’t too hopeful because it didn’t work out so well last time you tried. Or the time before that. Or the three times before that. But you’re a writer, it’s what you do, and you’re also a bit fatalistic, so you figure if it isn’t meant to be it won’t happen, but somewhere in that jaded little heart of yours you’re also just a touch optimistic which is why you keep trying anyway.

Yesterday was the result. It was small. It was simple. But I liked it, and I *finished* it. Because it was small. But it oiled the chain and re-inflated the tires and did a little basic maintenance and off I went for an easy little ride. That whet my taste for a bit longer ride today. To wit:

Red clay encased hair ropes down her back, conjure images of roots deepening through the red clay to anchor the spirit to the land. This is her land, thick with the blood of her foremothers, the dreams of her children’s future. The ornaments at her throat were not assembled in a factory for ten cents a day. This is a life not marred by forty hours of overtime in a race to get the next big screen TV to hang in the mortgage you can’t afford. But don’t confuse content for simple, simple for ignorant. A bright mind lays behind those bright eyes, filled with wisdom and hope. Elsewhere, not erstwhile. Mukuru bless those who dwell in the between, praised by the joyful clap of work-worn hands beneath the sun. Ochred black, beautiful.

African mother
First child at her breast nourished
Like the summer lambs

And as an aside:

I’ve always loved African hair. Ever since I was a child. I think it started with my love of Ancient Egypt (because really, any culture which worships cats is right up my alley) and just went from there. The beauty of it always made me just a little jealous. The hairstyles, the braids, the volume… hair that could do beautiful and amazing things, while mine just hung there all limp and straight. Of course, then I grew up and realized that I was not only unusual in this, that American society actively punishes African women for how they look, even for just wearing their hair in their traditional and natural styles, from being told it’s unprofessional, to assuming it must be a political statement, to calling it ghetto. Which is just… really tragic and horrible.

I’ve always found African aesthetics – their hair, their skin color, their smiles – to be absolutely beautiful. The woman in the picture above? She could be a model in my eyes. (Not that she’d want to be, from what I hear of the industry…)

Way more difficult than they appear, yet fun too, haiku are the ultimate poetry exercise. They strip poetry down to its bare bones (what we’re always trying to do in our poems anyway, right?) and yet they still remain startling and fresh. Traditionally, haiku focuses on nature, and juxtaposes two different images or ideas to form a metaphor. They should consist of 17 syllables in three “phrases,” or lines, usually in a pattern of 5, 7, 5.

My haiku is mainly meant to be funny. When Dorianne Laux, my workshop teacher, read it, she started laughing and said “There has been plenty of haiku written about the moon, but never that one!” I was pleased. I find serious haiku very hard to write. If you can do it, link to yours in the comments!

Lunar Cycle

Moon bikes miles each night,
becomes a skinny bitch. Then
gets knocked up again.

In a world that exalts novelty…get this brand-new giggling joppity great new fantastically never seen before variation of our dish soap… where youth is the by-word and be all of our age…I propose that we look for the venerable!

My “something old” is this gorgeous, vintage sewing machine, lovingly donated to me when my old machine broke down by my dear friend. It has since been again retired, but the beauty and power of this old machine can’t be matched.

Could we but mend our torn lives,Patch the holes in our spirits,Rethread our dreamsWith such elegance as this.

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About Eliza, Briefly (also, legal stuff)

Eliza Murdock has lived in Skagit County, Washington all her life. She feels a deep connection to the nature of the Pacific Northwest, the diverse landscapes, the climate, and the unique people. She currently lives at the foot of the Cascade Mountains on a small farm.

She has been writing since before she can remember, having always used stories and poems as a way to both express herself and explore her interactions with the world around her.

While she enjoys many creative hobbies, - gardening, art, painting, embroidery, sewing, spinning yarn, to name just a few - writing is her true passion. With it, she seeks to touch others, to reach out through all this life has to offer, good and bad, and connect to another soul.

*Legal Stuff*

All content of this blog is my original work unless otherwise cited. You are welcome to share but please give proper credit and provide a link to the original post. You are not free to use this work for monetary gain of any kind, or as any inclusion in advertisements for monetary gain of any kind. If anyone is going to make money off of this stuff, it's going to be me, but I like giving stuff away for free so please enjoy!